A transaction (e.g., a sale, a lease, a hotel reservation, a charitable donation, etc.) is often memorialized in the form of a receipt. Traditionally, receipts are issued on paper. Since the advent of e-commerce, transactions that occur on the web (e.g., retail purchases through web sites) have generated electronic receipts. When a transaction occurs over the web, a customer normally provides an e-mail address as part of the transaction, and the electronic receipt is sent to that e-mail address.
Electronic commerce has expanded beyond purchases through web sites. Modern cash registers are often implemented using software applications. Many items such as airline tickets, music, made-to-order sandwiches, etc., are sold through retail kiosks, which—like modern cash registers—are also implemented using software applications. The increasing use of computer systems to perform retail functions presents an opportunity to issue electronic receipts in cases where paper receipts traditionally have been issued.
A problem that arises when electronic receipts are issued outside of a web-site-purchase transaction is that it may be unclear where to deliver the receipt. Customers normally provide e-mail addresses when performing web transactions, so it is logical to e-mail the receipt to the customer. However, customers typically do not provide e-mail addresses when performing in-person transactions. Moreover, even if the customer does provide an e-mail address, there may be more convenient ways to handle a receipt than e-mailing it to the customer. The practice of e-mailing receipts may be a vestige of the dawn of e-commerce, when e-mailing the receipt to the customer was the only practical way to deliver an electronic receipt. Receipts could be handled in other ways that make use of the more sophisticated infrastructure, more powerful handheld devices, and greater connectivity.